


Time Passing

by periferal



Series: Out of Dust [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Content, Multi, Post Volume 3, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 10:29:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17042027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/periferal/pseuds/periferal
Summary: A little, slightly more explicit coda to the story "Out of Dust."





	Time Passing

“How do you want to do this?” Nora asked Jaune.

They had already mostly had this conversation, and Ren was worried Jaune would freak out, which would be bad. This was something he liked to do with Nora for the fact that sex felt good. He knew from experience that it could be a pretty effective distraction from awful emotions; both him and Nora wanted to add Jaune because he was pretty and something like this would be very immediate proof that he was still alive.

“I don’t know,” he said. He sat shirtless on the bed, back propped against the pillows. They’d brought their food down a while back, and he had nervously brought up Ren and Nora’s proposition. “I thought the two of you were the experts.”

Nora giggled. “Thanks,” she said. She looked at Ren, grinning. “You hear that?”

“What Nora’s referring to is we’ve only ever done this with each other,” Ren said. “You may be overestimating our general prowess.”

Jaune nodded. He still looked lost.

“Look, if you don’t want to do this we don’t have to talk about it ever again,” Nora said, expressing what Ren was worried about.

“No, I—” His face and neck reddened with embarrassment. “I just don’t know what to do. Exactly.” He coughed.

“Oh!’ Nora said. “That’s fine. Just do what we tell you!”

“If you’re into that,” Ren added.

“Sure,” Jaune said. “That sounds… nice.”

“Yeah,” Nora said. She looked at Ren and grinned. “It does.”

\--

The wound of Pyrrha’s absence didn’t go away with time, or sex, or quiet moments spent listening to Qrow talk in strangely hedged terms about his past. They couldn’t. But that was fine, or so Jaune told himself. This didn’t change when Ruby woke up.

As it turned out, doing _that_ with Ren and Nora, or one them by themselves, was nice. Really nice. And Jaune liked the mental quiet of being told what to do. It was a better distraction than even the sex by itself.

He felt guilty, sometimes, since Yang was emphatically not recovering, and Ruby was weird and quiet when they weren’t all training together. He had this thing with his two best friends, while Ruby had… no one.

Or maybe that was unfair. But it was hard not to get wrapped up in himself. He didn’t have much to do except train and think about things.

\--

Sometimes, Jaune would stop, or Ren would cringe back, or Nora would lose some of her energy and would get pensive, and they’d halt mid action.

“You’re thinking about her, aren’t you,” Jaune would say.

Nora would laugh a sadder version of her usual laugh. “Yeah,” she said.

“Well,” Ren said, one of those times. “I think the mood’s been killed.”

“Yeah,” Jaune said.

The three of them lay there together.

“Is it going to hurt less?” Jaune asked, his face pressed into Nora’s shoulder.

“I don’t know,” Nora said. “It’s like when Ren and I were little. It’s just so… overwhelming to think about.”

“I guess… I guess I still have a family,” Jaune said. “Even if I can’t get in contact with them.”

“We have you,” Nora said. “That’s not nothing.”

Jaune ducked his head. “I hope so,” he said. “I don’t always feel particularly useful.”

“You’re here,” Ren said. “And that’s more than can be said for half of Team RWBY.”

Yeah. At least he hadn’t run away, Jaune thought.

\--

“Ruby’s awake,” Qrow announced.

“Oh,” Jaune said. “Huh.”

“What do we do now?” Ren asked.

Qrow shrugged. “Seems to me we should go to Haven and look for Oz, but who the hell knows.” He sighed and looked at the bottle in his hand. “When Ruby’s feeling well enough, I suppose.”

“What about Yang?” Nora asked.

Qrow’s expression darkened. “She needs time,” he said. “That’s all there’s to say about it.” He shook his head. “Tai’ll take care of her, if we go.”

“Right,” Nora said.

That was one of those things Jaune wished he knew how to deal with it better. Yang had lost her arm. Considering what her weapon was… Jaune did not say anything to her about that. Or about anything, really, because there was no way he could say anything without putting both feet in his mouth. He’d grown up enough since his first days at Beacon to know that.

\--

Later, Ren broke Jaune’s thoughts with his mouth on his neck.

“Hey,” he said. “You’re worrying again.”

“That’s all any of us are doing,” Jaune said. “Will we be trained enough before we head out? Is Ruby up for it? Are we up for it? What will we find in Haven? Is Oz—”

He stopped when he felt Nora’s mouth on his dick.

“Stop that,” Ren said. “It won’t do you any good.”

“Right,” Jaune said vaguely. It was hard to think like this, which was probably the point.

He worried, sometimes, that he was the one who needed the most comfort. Shouldn’t he be the one carrying his team?

When Nora was done, Jaune watched Ren eat her out. It was more subdued sex than usual, but they all had those days.

\--

Time passed, and the ache in Jaune’s chest dimmed somewhat. It still hurt, and Ruby was still traumatized and her sister still not speaking and all those other awful things, but they were going to _do_ something about it. Of course, they had to train more (Jaune especially, he thought but no one said out loud) and Ruby was still reluctant to leave her sister, but they had time.

Time to think, time to grieve, time to have often great and often mediocre sex, time to train. Time to do all those things, before they set out on the road to Haven.

Jaune appreciated Qrow’s rough sympathy. Whatever had happened with STRQ (neither Qrow nor Taiyang would go into any specifics) Jaune appreciated the honestly.

Thing would be hard. But he was alive, by the gods, and so were most of his friends.

He did wish, sometimes, that Pyrrha was there to go on their quest with them. She would have loved it.


End file.
